The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-03-18
THE DRINK-sELIIyG BUSINESS.
The Women's Christian Temperance Union
Appeals to Brewers, Distillers and Dealers.

CHICAGO, March 1.-The National Women,s
Christian Temperance Union issued an address
to day to the brewers, distllers, rectifers,
wholesalers and saloon keepers The address ia
in accordance with resolution adopted at thu
annual convention held in Minneapolis last
October The address is in the form of plea,
and the people to whom it is directed are adj
dressed at the opening as brothers" The ad-
dress says:
From the days of the crusade. in 1874 until
this day, We have been in the habit of pleading
with you, personally and by letter and address
to give up the business OF making and selling in
toxicatlng liquors as a drink and. to your
credit be it said, in the vast majority of instan-
ces you have treated us not only with politeness
but with kindness. In great and successful
| campaigns for prohibition--for none of them
have failed since even in Ohio. though we have
| had, not a constitutional majority, we had
over three hundred thousand votes for
| prohibition. to less than one hundred
| thousand for license, and in Kansas
lowe, Maine and Rhode Island we gained the
amendment-in all these campaigns we appeal
| to you to say If we have ever manifested a
| spirit of harshness or bravado. On the con-
trary. we have spoken considerably of you as
men, reserving our denunciations for the bust
ness IN which YOU are engaged for the laws by
which legal status is accorded to that bust
ness for the Legislatures which enact such
laws, and the voters who are the power behind
The address declares that many of the men
engaged IN the liquor traffic possessed of the
most generous attributes, but among them are
to be found some OF the most unfortunate VIC
| tins of drink. The address then goes on to say:
! I'm almost every State and Territory we have
sent out our appeal to the Legislatures for pro-
lection from this curse, and, though often griev-
ousy disappointed. our plea has not been alto
| eether in vain. For thirteen years we have
petitioned Congress, and at last secured in the
ientlfie-temperanee-educat bill, the first
| general temperance legislation known to its
| annals while our pitiful cry to the voters of the
Nation has been responded to by local
option laws ard constitutional amendments
covering nearly half the inhabited area of the
| Republic. But We have never until now come
with the united voices of the White ribbon wom-
en- to that small fraction of men who make and
| sell the poisonous drinks against which we are
fghting the drinks that nerve with dangerous
| strength arms already SO much stronger than
our own, and at the same time so steal awar the
| brain that ought to guide those manly arms
that they are no longer womans shelter and pro-
lection. but her worst enemy. We bring our
| plea. then. straight to the source of woman's
direst calamity and sorrow, and lay it at your
feet. By the testimony of courts and iuries the
liquor traffic is the cause of 80 per cent. of all
crime, aud 80 per cent of all the paupersm i'll
| this country We know you say: 1t is great
| industry. and pays enormous revenues to the
state But we know also. for every dollar it
puts into the public treasury two have to be paid
out in securing the trial of the criminals it Gre
ateS ana IN mdlns tanning the Daupers 1T produces"
The address then proceeds to discuss the aues-
/ ton as to whether prohibition does not prohibit,
and declares that experience proves that it does
| prohibit, in all practical Senses and that the
fact is realized and acknowledged by the manu-.
facturers Il quotes from the resolutions passed
by liquor men in favor of licenses, and says their
Endorsement of license condemns the system. The
address finally saws:
"We have here addressed the manufacturer
and wholesale dealer, we'll as the dis penser OF
| strong drinks, because we think undue share
of denunciation has fallen on the saloon keeper,
| who is but the cats paw to take out of the FIRE
| the chestnuts OF the rich man back of him. Our
| observation teaches US that the stock and FIX
lures of the saloon usually belong to the brewer,
distiier or Wholesale dealer, who sets up in
| business some man ignorant and poor who sells
| what the capitalist furnishes. Morally, this
rich man is under deeper condemnation than his
| less enlightened representative who pours out
| the drink, collects the price thereof, and banda
over the lions share of profit to the manufact-
| urer and the government"